May.13.2008
1:29 pm
by TeddyBear

Muslim Student Threatens to Kill Student Teachers Service Dog named Emmitt

St. Cloud Times photo by Jason Wachter,

Well if this does not just make it a small world.  Tyler Hurd was a student in one of my wife’s classes.  Tyler was an excellent student and Lady Bear enjoyed his contributions to class. 

Tyler’s story is really pretty amazing.  This is a guy who has seizures and yet, this brave man is following his calling to teach and live a productive and I must add, inspiring life.  I remember Lady Bear telling me about this young man when he was taking her class at SCSU.  It is inspiring to me that Tyler has accomplished so much with his challenges.  I salute him and that is why this is so troubling to hear what has happened to him along his path to attain a teachers certificate. 

It worries me that this student was not removed and or expelled.  From my understanding this is a federal matter that may fit the definition of terrorism.  Have our institutions gone so far that not only our teachers are threatened but now service dogs? 

I hope Tyler is fine and I am sure he will endure.  I am just saddened that the administration of both SCSU and this technical High School did not intercede faster so that Tyler did not have to face this challenge as well and have to delay his program of study. 

Lady Bear and myself have a beautiful black lab cross pup named Daisy.  You can do a lot to myself and I can let it roll of my back, but threatening my animals in which I consider family, that is another story. 

It seems this student was also muslim.  Now this does not surprise me, but I am wondering why this students ethnicity or religion had anything to do with this story.  The student was wrong and needed to be punished.  Regardless of Race or creed.  However, if this is related to this students muslim creed then we have a problem here.  A big problem and it needs to be fixed very swiftly. 

You see I am of the line of thinking that pets and animals humanize us and teach us compassion and empathy.  If a muslim does not have the ability to share in this very human relationship, I think we may have uncovered a key here to the way muslims are conditioned to radicalism.  I pray this is not the case, but if it is, this must be addressed.

St. Cloud Times article is below:

A St. Cloud State University student in a teacher-training program at Technical High School left the school in late April because he says he feared for the safety of his service dog.

The school district calls it a misunderstanding, and officials there say they hoped Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior from Mahtomedi who aspires to teach special education, would continue his training in the district.

Hurd said a student threatened to kill his service dog named Emmitt. The black lab is trained to protect Hurd when he has seizures.

The seizures, which can occur weekly, are from a childhood injury.

The dog has a pouch on his side that assists those who stop to help Hurd.

Hurd said he was unable to finish his 50 hours of field training at Tech. The university waived the remaining 10 hours, he said. He plans to do his student teaching outside a high school setting.

“We came up with a solution because I felt threatened by it,” Hurd said.

The school district and university are working to make sure a similar situation doesn’t happen.

Kate Steffens, dean of the college of education at St. Cloud State, and Tech assistant principal Lori Lockhart met Thursday.

The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to Hurd, St. Cloud State and school district officials.

The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs.

Hurd trained at Talahi Community School and Tech. He said his experience at Talahi was good. The Somali students there warmed to the dog and eventually petted him using paper to keep their hands off his fur, Hurd said.

Things didn’t go as well at Tech, Hurd said. Students there taunted his dog, and he finally felt he had to leave after he was told a student made a threat. Hurd met with Lockhart but said he did not feel comfortable continuing.

Julia Espe, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for St. Cloud school district, said the school needed to do a better job communicating.

“I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn’t really prepare either side for possible implications,” Espe said.

Espe said the school’s investigation determined the student did not make a direct threat.

“We certainly welcome (Hurd) in our district, and we hope we can get this all resolved so he feels welcome and his dog is welcome,” Espe said.

St. Cloud State places about 1,000 students in 240 schools to help prepare them for careers in education.

In St. Cloud school district, 330 are in the field training program Hurd was in and 94 are in student teaching.

Steffens said it is important to respect different cultures and the rights of disabled students.

“I think this is part of the growth process when we become more diverse,” Steffens said.

Steffens called Hurd a good student and committed young man.

Gary Loch, who is the diversity coordinator for the district, said the situation was an unfortunate case of miscommunication.

“I’m not quite sure where the breakdown comes into play here,” Loch said.

As I am writing this I am listening to Rush Limbaugh report on this story.  It is nice to beat Rush to press on something!

~Teddy Bear

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One Response to “Muslim Student Threatens to Kill Student Teachers Service Dog named Emmitt”

  1. 1Stix1972 (R-IL) (VRWC)on 13 May 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Pretty sad story, when the Dhimis in the Education Department let someone like that.

    Way to go in getting the story out before Rush.

    It is also at The Nose on your face

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